1. Field of the Invention
In general, the present invention relates to closures of the type used on containers that hold liquid products. More particularly, the present invention relates to closures where the liquid product is dispensed through the structure of the closure. The present invention also relates to closures for containers that have multiple compartments.
2. Prior Art Description
Many consumer products are packaged in multi-chambered containers. A multi-chambered container is a container that is compartmentalized into separate compartments. Each of the compartments is filled with a distinct material. The various materials can therefore be selectively dispensed from a single container.
There are many reasons for packaging different materials into different compartments of a single container. For certain products, such as epoxy adhesives, cleaning fluids, and other reactive compounds, the storage of different material in different compartments is required to prevent chemical reactions from occurring between the compounds. For other products, multi-chambered containers are used merely to provide a consumer with a selective control in dispensing the various materials within the container.
Multi-chambered containers exist in many forms. For example, there are multi-chambered bottle containers made of both plastic and glass. There are also multi-chambered pouch containers and bag containers. Regardless of the structure of the multi-chambered container, the closure for that container typically falls into one of two types. The first type of closure is a dedicated closure. That is, each chamber within the multi-chambered closure has its own closure. Individual compartments can therefore be opened and closed as desired. For example, a shaker container may have both a salt compartment and a pepper compartment. A person can dispense either salt or pepper by opening the closure over the desired compartment.
The second type of closure is a mixing closure. A mixing closure mixes the materials from different compartments as those materials exit the container. The materials can mix just as they exit the closure, such as is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,308,862 to Fillmore, entitled Dispensing Package For Dual Viscous Products. Alternatively, the materials can mix within the closure, prior to being dispensed, as is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,752,264 to Versluys, entitled Flexible Pouch Having System For Mixing Two Components.
In the first type of prior art closure, a person can select materials from the different compartments, but those materials cannot be intermixed prior to being dispensed. In the second type of prior art closure, the material can be intermixed prior to dispensing, but the choice of materials in the mixture cannot be selected.
The present invention is a closure and a container with a closure that combines the advantages of both types of prior art closures. The present invention enables a person to select materials from different chambers in a container and then mixes and dispenses only the materials that were selected. The present invention is described and claimed below.